Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Tonight a poem in celebration of music. Because I have Rolling Stones tickets (BOSTON BABY!). Because my daughter plays violin. Because where words fail, music speaks. Because the music I listen to will tell you more about me than my mouth ever could. Because to stop the flow of music would be like the stopping of time itself, incredible and inconceivable. (That last there isn't me - it's Aaron Copland.)

Sunday, June 9, 2013

This is an excellent guide from Publisher's Weekly, everything you ever wanted to know about booksellers in the United State. Among other things, many other things, you can find out which state has the most bookstores and which state has the most bookstores per capita. Answers: a tie between Texas and California; and Montana, respectively.

Excellent news: Most states have more traditional bookstores than big-box stores, and in 10 states, the ratio of traditional bookstores to big-box stores was 2:1 or greater. And check out the Queen of Traditional Booksellers: Vermont, where the ratio is 37:1!

Far, far out lie the white sails all at rest;
Like spectral arms they seem to touch and cling
Unto the wide horizon. Not a wing
Of truant bird glides down the purpling west;
No breeze dares to intrude, e’en on a quest
To fan a lover’s brow; the waves to sing
Have quite forgotten till the deep shall fling
A bow across its vibrant chords. Then, lest
One moment of the sea’s repose we lose,
Nor furnish Fancy with a thousand themes
Of unimagined sweetness, let us gaze
On this serenity, for as we muse,
Lo! all is restless motion: life’s best dreams
Give changing moods to even halcyon days.

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

And they're off! The Doll bursts out of the starting gate like Secretariat at Aqueduct. This is no exaggeration: page one and our heroine is darted like a bear and kidnapped by homicidal Croatians masquerading as paramedics in an ambulance stolen from the city of Dallas. Miles Bradford, lover, PTSD-sufferer, spy extraordinaire and Boy Robin, witnesses the scene from his office window.

This sets off a vicious romp across countries, oceans and continents but not in search of Michael, oh no, Michael can more than handle herself. Turns out she's been "hired" by The Doll Maker, a bat-shit crazy, child-sex-slave trafficking, scum of the earth, who only passes as human because he has opposable thumbs. Michael is being coerced into delivering a particularly valuable "package" (read: kidnapped woman) to a client, as penance for what The Doll Maker sees as her past transgressions against his organization and revenue stream. The Doll Maker's minions have kidnapped Logan, the person Michael is closest to in all the world, in order to ensure her cooperation. But watch what happens when she turns the tables.

This is the third installment in the best-selling saga of Vanessa Michael Munroe - chameleon, language-savant, assassin, righteous dispenser of justice. The first volume is The Informationist, the second The Innocent, both of which have been reviewed on this blog previously. Michael is a female protagonist like none before. She is something truly new under the sun: physically, mentally and emotionally courageous, just like plenty of real women. There are no wasted pages spent on improbable romantic entanglements, no "female" squishiness here. There are facts and logic and strategy and tactics - good lord it's so freeing! And there is the necessary kill. Or a dozen, maybe, who's counting?

In evidence of Michael's reputation, instructions given to the kidnappers, page 22:

Do not let her hear your language, the source had said, she will use language as a weapon. Keep the area around her free of objects, everything will be used as a weapon. Stay clear of her reach, she doesn't need a weapon to kill you. Don't use restraints, she will find a way out of them, and they will only give a false sense of safety. Do not touch her, the source said. Leave her in peace, and treat her respectfully, only then will the violence stay muted. Disrespect these and make no mistake, she will kill you.

As long as I'm offering samples, here is an example of the way Michael absorbs and assimilates sensory information:

Not real speech, a recording. She could tell that even from this drug-induced haze. She stretched fingertips to the wall and heard from touch the same story told by the smell of this place. Dank. Damp. Buried.

One more. Michael has a knife fetish, upon lifting a knife off a bad guy:

The handle connected with her palm like a creation returning to its mold, metal against skin, familiar and soothing.

Taylor Stevens

I really can't quibble with anything here. The writing is improving on schedule, as it should with a third book. The dialogue is genuine. The pacing is nearly perfect - there are no lulls in the action here. The characterizations are true. The plot is unique to the genre - exactly what genre is this? Taylor Stevens may be inventing a new one and how exciting is that? Just when you think you know where the plot is headed, it arrives in another location entirely. You think you've got it figured out but there are a hundred pages left and what's up with that? And then the tale takes off again, racing onward to a conclusion unexpected, complicated and immensely satisfying.

Monday, June 3, 2013

It is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Pride Month. I have family members and friends who answer to one or more of those terms. And so do you. I understand that there are issues that effect the LGBT community disproportionately but I think it's a mistake to assume that these issues don't have anything to do with you if you are exclusively heterosexual. Because we are related to individuals of the LGBT community and count them among our friends, we must realize that these issues are questions of human rights. And that makes them everyones' concern.

Tolerance is a nice word but it doesn't get the job done. The word for today is empathy.

em·pa·thynoun[em-puh-thee] the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present
The Advocate has a lovely article on reasons to be proud, among them are:

Because 2.7 million on Facebook supported equality during the SCOTUS hearings in March

Because Christine Quinn has a very good chance of becoming the first out lesbian mayor of NYC

Because relationship equality is spreading across the country - 13 states and counting